Holding on to you
by Psianabel
Summary: ... In which Jack is a sad puppy and Eight tries to cheer him up before he needs to leave.


A slight breeze swept through the garden behind Classroom 0, swirling up leaves from the tress that moved along the fresh air and brought a chilling feeling in this hot summer for once. It was way too warm and actually very unusual at this time of the day to have this kind of temperature. It was even worse inside Akademeia, so many students either preferred a leafy bower outside or the conditioned dormitories inside. And this was way better than anything else right now.

Jack sighed when the wind flew over him and tickled his cheek as he let himself lie down on the grass, tucking his arms behind his head as he closed his eyes for a brief second to enjoy this quietness. Though he opening them again shortly after to eye the boy standing next to him who bounced up and down on his feet, occasionally stretching his arms over his head.

Ah, his normal stretching-routine.

Even in this quiet moment with only the two boys Eight was restless and couldn't keep still, not even noticing when Jack tucked at the end of his trousers to get his attention. Only after he called his name Eight noticed Jack who shot him a smile in his direction and waved to the ground to join him on his side. Eight nodded, returning the smile once he sat down beside him and poked him with his elbow against his arm he had tucked behind his head.

Jack wanted them to have this short time together and after a bit pouting and poking he got Eight to accept his invitation. They knew their time was short today, but just the two of them sitting quiet together didn't feel like any waste of time – it never was a waste to be around the one you trust the most, the one you never want to miss in life no matter what happened, no matter what situation you were in.

It had been only two weeks since they grew that close together, admitting that there was more than common friendship between them. And yet those two weeks felt like a life time – as if it was always that way, that there was never ever something else in their lives than this.  
Neither wanted to let go of this feeling – it was too precious, too wonderful to feel that it was down right frightening.

Frightened that maybe one day the memories of one of them would be suddenly gone, away from everyone's minds and erased from the world. It was the rule of this world and they couldn't escape this law, but that didn't mean they couldn't fight against this cruelty of forgetting their loved ones when the time came.

Jack watched the boy out of the corner of his eye, seeing his relaxed way of taking in the faint rays of the sunshine through the leaves of the tree they sat under. He leaned on his hands behind his back, legs stretched out on the soft grass, and from the way his chest rose and fell his breathing was slow and calm.

Situations like that were seldom in times of war – between going on missions to win a war and making sure that their home was safe, there wasn't much time for personal feelings. But that didn't stop neither boy from enjoying themselves from time to time, especially in-between missions.

Eight must have noticed Jack's staring and tilted his head in his direction to catch his eye – and Jack's eyes widened, because he took a few seconds to realize that he got caught in his intense staring and tried to avoid his gaze then, but Eight just chuckled at the flustered way Jack reacted, knowing how he couldn't stop taking his eyes away from him.

The blond scratched his head as he sat up cross-legged, returning the silly smile on his face and mimicked Eight's position. Their shoulders brushed that way – the pauldrons clanged when they got too near together and in an awkward motion they both shifted away a few centimeters, still near to each other, but without any disturbing noises.

Jack hung his head and sighed when the laughter stopped, remembering that their time together slowly faded.

"It sucks that you have to leave soon."

"Yeah..." Eight nodded and pulled his knees up to his chest, placing his chin on top of it. "But it's not for long. Moglin said it will only be for two or three days."

" … Three days too long." He murmured with his sunken head, but Eight patted him on his leg to make him look up again in his direction.

Their eyes met for a while and neither couldn't stop looking at them – they refused avoiding their gazes, knowing that soon it wouldn't be possible for them to do this for a while.

Jack's heart sped up the more he looked into his curious eyes and Eight used this to his advantage, shifting closer until he pulled him into a hug.

"If Trey and Sice don't hold me back on the mission, I'm sure I'll be back before you know it." Eight whispered against his shoulder while Jack slowly returned the sudden hug coming from him.

"Yeah hopefully." He sighed again, burying his head in his shoulder. "Why can't they send me with you."

"Hey." Eight pulled away and grabbed both of his shoulders, shooting him another smile, "Where is your enthusiasm? You were never that sad before."

"I'm not … _sad._ I'm just …" Jack tried to form a sentence in his head before he spoke, but failed, much to Eight's amusement. "Okay okay, I might be a _little bit_ sad, but … aren't I allowed to be that once in a while? You'll be gone and-"

"It's not the end of the world. Besides, I told you I won't be gone for long. You can handle this, I'm sure."

"Yeah but … it will still be boring all that time, I can't stand this stuffy place without you."

"Now you are exaggerating." Eight twitched his lips and playfully punched him against his shoulders, only to see Jack cracking a little smile because of that.

"Okay, look." He continued and patted over the pockets of his trousers. "I've … heard that there is this tradition that the soldiers of Rubrum practice. I only saw it yesterday near the arena."

He pulled out a small black metal out of his pockets that shimmered faint in the light.

"They say that soldiers give their Knowing Tag to the one who deeply cares about them before they leave on an important mission. And …" Eight stopped as he fumbled with his Knowing Tag in his hands, looking at it the last time before he held it out to him at the chain. "... That way I'm always with you."

Jack's smile grew wide when he took the cold metal in his hands, inspecting it as he had never seen one before. It perfectly fit in his hands, the Vermillion Bird on it with its wings took almost half of the space in and under the feathers of its tail was a photo of the boy, looking as serious as he could. Jack almost chuckled at the expression – he had never seen Eight's Knowing Tag before, only his own, and somehow having such an important item in his hands felt special.

"Aww Eight." Jack averted his eyes from it and looked at him again. "That's … so _cute_."

His grin couldn't be any wider now as he wrapped his arms around the small boy's shoulders and gave him a surprise kiss – Eight was slightly taken aback by this, but he went with it; he definitely couldn't and wouldn't complain about a kiss.

His cheek had a shade of crimson when they broke the embrace, their foreheads touching when they couldn't keep their eyes from each other once again.

Minutes must have passed until Eight slowly leaned back from Jack's closeness.

"I really should go now."

"Yeah."

In a second he stood up and patted over his trousers to sweep away the dirt from the grass.

"Thanks for bringing me out here, I think I wouldn't be more ready for this mission if I didn't."

"Ha, my pleasure. You know how you should listen to me more often."

"Yeah right." Eight caressed over his blond hair and Jack tried to grab his hand for that, but he didn't manage to get him – Eight pulled away too fast for that. The small boy just chuckled at the pout Jack gave him, because usually the roles were reversed in this situation.

"Meanie."

"Okay then..."

It was a kind of awkward goodbye, neither wanted to other one to go or to leave, but a mission always came first no matter what happened. Jack looked after him when he opened the door to Classroom 0, vanishing out of his sight when he stepped through it. But looking at the now-warm Knowing Tag in his hand he knew he wouldn't be alone ever.

As long as he could see and remember this face on the photo there, he was sure that nothing bad would ever happen to him.

Smiling he leaned back again and looked at the blue summer sky, enjoying the tickling rays of sunshine on his face – already waiting for him to return.


End file.
